Bringing people together through the arts. A non-profit second-hand bookshop and arts venue in Kenilworth, Warwickshire. Patron: Warren Ellis (Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Dirty Three)

People regularly come into the bookshop to find out what it’s all about. Hopefully better signage (on its way!) will make it less confusing, but I know that it’s also that we are perhaps offering something that is a bit new in the town. This week at the Tree House has contained a great variety of activities, showing what a flexible place we are and how we are growing as a community hub.

Monday evening we had the start of an 8-week course on Mindfulness. Tuesday afternoon we sorted lots of books from the unsorted mountains and made plans for expanding the book display areas. Wednesday we had T’ai Chi and a needlecraft group. Tonight we have a film. On Saturday we have reflexology and shiatsu sessions during the day and a band playing Latin American music in the evening. On Sunday another film – tonight’s film is one of the finest examples of modern European cinema (with subtitles and everything!), Sunday’s film is an old-fashioned black and white classic. We have Duke of Edinburgh students volunteering today and on Saturday. As I type, three people are having a meeting and a cup of coffee in the sofa area. It just struck me that this week has been a microcosm of what the Tree House is all about.

We have even been selling books!

Last night at Nifty Needles, our weekly needlecraft group, we were chatting about all the people we have got to know through the Tree House – including each other, of course. It’s something we are still working on, but things do seem to be happening, and having this space in the centre of town is wonderful. We hope to have more live music in the coming weeks, and some literary events too, and we are still trying to sort out events for children – we certainly want to make more of the school holidays, and offer something that parents and other carers can bring children to that will encourage them to read (not that some of them need it – it’s often the child that doesn’t want to leave when the parent needs to press on, which is always great to see!)

If you have any ideas for the Tree House, do let us know – we may not implement everything, but it’s always very helpful to know what people would like to see happening, and as a community space it has a dynamism that is centred around the people that use it. So do get involved!